In the Common Council’s highly-contested District 4 race, candidates must address a range of city issues that affect both students on the Hill and residents across Syracuse — including the major Interstate 81 infrastructure project.

District 4 covers portions of Syracuse University, but also stretches west into the I-81 corridor, encompassing most of the city’s South Side and part of downtown. Khalid Bey, the current District 4 councilor, is seeking an at-large Common Council seat this November.

Three candidates are now campaigning for Bey’s open position: Latoya Allen, the Democratic nominee; Quante Wright, on the independence ticket; and Serena “Rahzie” Seals, a Green Party candidate.

The candidates described how they might tackle the city’s relationship with SU, New York state’s I-81 project and local economic development.

Relationship between the city and Syracuse University

SU remains crucial to Syracuse’s economy. The university provides hundreds of jobs to area residents and has an annual $2.1 billion economic impact on the central New York region, one SU official said in 2015.

Seales, if elected, would work to establish more worker cooperatives between local businesses and SU, or the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, she said.

For example, she said, SUNY Upstate could partner with an old Syracuse textile mill to have the hospital’s laundry washed. The partnership would create new jobs, said Seales, a local leader of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“It’s not like it can’t be done,” she said, referencing the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in Cleveland, a job program sponsored in part by University Hospitals of Cleveland.

Allen, a youth program organizer on the South Side, said she would promote more dialogue between Syracuse residents and SU students living off campus.

Students need to form relationships with their local neighbors, she said, and possibly establish informal behavior rules, to remain courteous during the academic year.

Wright, a South Side anti-violence speaker, said he would work with officials to establish inexpensive pathway programs to help residents attend SU. This would “build a bridge” between the city and university, he said.

“I know there’s a big disconnect,” said Wright, who hopes to study either business, public relations or government as part of an SU master’s program, in the future.

Interstate 81

All three candidates said they support a “community grid” alternative for replacing a controversial portion of Interstate 81, called the viaduct, that bisects downtown Syracuse.

That stretch of highway, caked with rust and crumbling in spots, is expected to undergo major reconstruction or deconstruction as part of a state project.

Seales said she is not opposed to the New York State Department of Transportation’s community grid concept, which would destroy the viaduct, redirect highway traffic east around Syracuse on Interstate 481 and cost an estimated $1.3 billion.

But, Seales said, she remains concerned the community grid could harm public housing residents at Pioneer Homes and Toomey Abbott Towers. Most tower residents are either disabled or elderly, she said.

“What does that look like? Are they going to be forced to stay in?” Seales said. Toomey Abbott Towers is adjacent SU’s Brewster, Boland and Brockway halls. Pioneer Homes is wedged between I-81 and SUNY Upstate.

Many kids living at Pioneer Homes also suffer from asthma, Allen said, and officials must keep that in mind as they plan the project. Dust and other debris could be unsafe, both Allen and Seales said.

The Democratic nominee lives off Elk Street, near I-81, and can hear tractor-trailers driving along the highway all night, she said.

“I absolutely want to see it come down,” Allen said of the viaduct. The interstate’s original construction damaged once prosperous black communities, such as Pioneer Homes, Wright added.

Pioneer Homes, the oldest public housing complex in New York, is in a census tract referenced by The Century Foundation’s 2015 report on extreme minority poverty.

“Putting I-81 up was one of the worst (ideas) ever in the history of Syracuse,” Wright said.

Economic development

A nationwide decline in manufacturing jobs and the Great Recession hit Syracuse’s economy hard.

More than 40,000 people in the city lived below the poverty line last year, United States Census Bureau data shows. And, a recent comptroller report found central New York’s workforce is shrinking.

To combat economic stagnation and poverty, Wright said he would work with the Greater Syracuse Land Bank in an attempt to renovate vacant housing on the South Side. Fixing up houses to sell could promote new homeownership, he said.

Seales, meanwhile, said she would look to model a new Syracuse electric program off the nearby Village of Solvay Electric Department. Solvay, a suburb near Onondaga Lake, owns its own electric company, the third-largest public power system in New York.

“We can do something like that” to lower electric bills, the Green Party candidate said.

Allen, who did not detail specific economic development initiatives, said she would frequently hold “Coffee With My Councilor” events to discuss District 4 residents’ concerns.

The events would be free and held from Westcott to the South Side, she said.

“You have to deal with each different area” of the district, Allen said. “But, at the same time, you treat everybody’s issues as a priority.”

Published on September 26, 2017 at 10:07 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek